How do I fix a problem with heavy RAM usage?

Question

Level 1

10 points

How do I fix a problem with heavy RAM usage?

System response time on my iMac is very painful, especially when editing pictures in Photos.

After running EtreCheck, I see there's an issue with memory usage. The information under "Top Processes by Memory" doesn't mean much to me. Any ideas on what's causing the memory problem and what I can do to improve it?

Thanks in advance for any guidance with this issue!

EtreCheck version: 4.3.6 (4D041)

Report generated: 2018-09-02 18:33:28

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:06

Performance: Good

Problem: Computer is too slow

Description:

Photos app is especially slow.

Major Issues: None

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Heavy RAM usage - This machine is using a large amount of RAM.

Small backup drive - Time Machine backup drive is too small.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)

iMac Model: iMac12,1

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-2400S) CPU: 4-core

20 GB RAM - At maximum

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1333 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1333 ok

BANK 0/DIMM1 - 8 GB DDR3 1333 ok

BANK 1/DIMM1 - 8 GB DDR3 1333 ok

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB

AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 512 MB

iMac 1920 x 1080

Drives:

disk0 - WDC WD5000AAKS-402AA0 500.11 GB (Mechanical)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 499.25 GB

disk0s3 - Recovery HD (HFS+) [Recovery] 650 MB

disk1 - HP External HDD 319.37 GB

External USB 480 Mbit/s

disk1s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk1s2 - H***********e (Case-Sensitive Journaled HFS+) 319.03 GB

disk2 - HP External HDD 804 MB

External USB 480 Mbit/s

disk2s0 700 MB

disk2s0s1 [Partition Map] 1 KB

disk2s0s2 - H*********r (HFS) 870 KB

Mounted Volumes:

disk0s2 - Macintosh HD 499.25 GB (280.99 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /

disk1s2 - H***********e 319.03 GB (2.59 GB free)

Case-Sensitive Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /Volumes/H***********e

disk2s0s2 - H*********r 870 KB (23 KB free)

HFS

Mount point: /Volumes/H*********r

Network:

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

One IPv4 address

Interface en0: Ethernet

Interface fw0: FireWire

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D102)

Time since boot: About 2 hours

System Load: 1.51 (1 min ago) 1.35 (5 min ago) 1.42 (15 min ago)

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection	Enabled

32-bit Applications:

3 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:

/Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Kext

[Loaded] MB_MBAM_Protection.kext (Malwarebytes Corporation, 3.4 - SDK 10.13)

/System/Library/Extensions

[Not Loaded] ssuddrv.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.42 - SDK 10.6)

/System/Library/Extensions/ssuddrv.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[Not Loaded] ssudmdmcontrol.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.42 - SDK 10.6)

[Not Loaded] ssudmdmdata.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.42 - SDK 10.6)

[Not Loaded] ssudmtp.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.42 - SDK 10.5)

[Not Loaded] ssudserial.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.42 - SDK 10.6)

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	8 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	164 Apple tasks
[Running]	118 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded]	35 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	180 Apple tasks
[Running]	115 Apple tasks
[Other]	3 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 0 - installed )
[Running]	com.malwarebytes.mbam.frontend.agent.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2018-08-06)

Launch Daemons:

[Running]	com.malwarebytes.mbam.settings.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2018-08-06)
[Running]	com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2018-08-06)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-07-27)
[Not Loaded]	com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (? 0 - installed )

User Launch Agents:

[Loaded]

com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-07-17)

User Login Items:

fuspredownloader Application (? - installed 2016-12-05)

(~/Library/Application Support/.FUS/fuspredownloader.app)

Launcher SMLoginItem (Mac App Store - installed 2018-03-10)

(/Applications/Notebook.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/Launcher.app)

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: (installed 2018-08-14)

QuickTime Plugin: (installed 2018-03-17)

Flash Player: (installed 2018-08-14)

User Internet Plug-ins:

ContentManager:

RocketEngine:

UploadManager:

Safari Extensions:

Adblock Plus.safariextz - Eyeo GmbH - https://adblockplus.org/ (installed 2016-12-21)

AdBlock.safariextz - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (installed 2018-07-29)

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials.safariextz - DuckDuckGo - http://duckduckgo.com (installed 2018-08-21)

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2018-07-27)

Time Machine:

Skip System Files: No

Mobile backups: No

Auto backup: Yes

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB - Disk used: 218.26 GB

Destinations:

H***********e [Local] (Last used)

Total size: 319.03 GB

Total number of backups: 52

Oldest backup: 2017-09-11 09:43:11

Last backup: 2018-09-02 17:58:06

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count)	Source	% of CPU	Location
RTProtectionDaemon	Malwarebytes Corporation	4
WindowServer	Apple	3
kernel_task	Apple	1
sandboxd	Apple	0
sysmond	Apple	0

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count)	Source	RAM usage	Location
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (9)	Apple	2.21 GB
Safari	Apple	1.19 GB
kernel_task	Apple	1.17 GB
com.apple.photos.ImageConversionService (2)	Apple	832 MB
mdworker (15)	Apple	291 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process	Source	Input	Output	Location
com.apple.WebKit.Networking	Apple	6 MB	681 KB
Mail	Apple	2 MB	82 KB
netbiosd	Apple	977 KB	2 KB
mDNSResponder	Apple	586 KB	294 KB
apsd	Apple	14 KB	10 KB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count)	Source	Energy (0-100)	Location
RTProtectionDaemon	Malwarebytes Corporation	7
WindowServer	Apple	2
sysmond	Apple	0
nsurlstoraged (2)	Apple	0
Activity Monitor	Apple	0

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM	12.08 GB
Free RAM	5.50 GB
Used RAM	7.92 GB
Cached files	6.58 GB
Swap Used	0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name	Version	Install Date
Adobe Flash Player	30.0.0.154	2018-08-14
Malwarebytes for Mac	1.0	2018-09-02

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3), 21.5 inch, Mid 2011

Posted on Sep 4, 2018 1:40 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

John Galt

Level 10

141,234 points

Sep 4, 2018 3:53 PM in response to catherinemac

Unless you have reason to believe that memory resources are being depleted then there is nothing wrong with that Mac's memory usage.

Refer to this explanation from How to use Activity Monitor on your Mac - Apple Support (emphasis added):

Red: Memory resources are depleted, and macOS is using your startup drive for memory. To make more RAM available, you can quit one or more apps or install more RAM. This is the most important indicator that your Mac may need more RAM.

If Activity Monitor's unitless "Memory Pressure" graph is "red" then your Mac's performance is being constrained by available memory, and would benefit from installation of additional RAM. Conversely, if it isn't, then it won't. It's that simple.

I don't know how EtreCheck defines "Heavy RAM usage" or determines what is or is not "heavy" but that allegation seems unjustified to me. Whatever is going on with Photos is not being caused by a lack of RAM. I recommend that you use Activity Monitor so that you can determine for yourself that you have plenty of RAM available.

In fact I'm surprised that Mac is using so little memory. Unfortunately even if you were to configure a Mac's memory to its capacity limit, macOS will still insist upon writing memory to mass storage—which in the case of that Mac is a relatively slow hard disk drive (compared to solid state storage). If you're experiencing general slowness that's where the bottleneck is likely to be.

Furthermore, as Tesserax said, nonstandard memory configurations will result in unexpected effects. Apple does not test nonstandard hardware configurations, and your model iMac is designed for a maximum of 16 GB. Plenty of people install more, but if you elect to do that you're kind of on your own, and must always remain vigilant for those "unexpected effects". When in doubt it's best to revert to an unequivocally supported hardware configuration, then reevaluate whatever problem you may be experiencing.

There are some things you can do to potentially isolate the cause, but I think you're better off using Activity Monitor to correlate the slow performance with a factor other than memory. Read the above Apple Support document to determine how to use it.

macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D102)

One unequivocal fact worth mentioning is that macOS version is outdated by several months. That can certainly be a contributing factor in slow performance, whether it manifests in Photos or anything else you're doing. To learn how to keep macOS up to date please read Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support.

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

148,595 points

Sep 4, 2018 9:32 PM in response to catherinemac

I see from the report that your iMac has 20 GB of RAM. Apple states that this iMac model can only be supported up to 16 GB of RAM, although third-party sources claim it can handle up to 32 GB. Regardless, I am assuming that the current 20 GB of RAM is not Apple-provided RAM ... correct? This may not be an issue, but it is one potential one.

You mention photo editing. What app or apps do you use to do this? Do you run other apps concurrently when editing? What would be helpful is to run the Activity Monitor and select the Memory tab. Look for apps that are consuming high amounts of RAM under the Memory column. This would be the suspects to further troubleshoot.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,776 points

Sep 4, 2018 9:33 PM in response to catherinemac

Nothing in that report indicates much problem with Memory. Your Safari tabs are using a lot when you ran the check. Most of the time when you have a lot of tabs open, the embedded ads will chew up memory. However, you seem to be running an ad blocker, so I'm not sure.

Were you having issues editing photos when you ran this check?

The only other thing I can think of would be to see what happens if you uninstall the Devguru stuff. It isn't loaded, so I doubt this would cause the problems you see, but system modifications do odd things.

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Answer 4

catherinemac Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 4, 2018 9:32 PM in response to Barney-15E

The additional RAM was purchased from a third-party Apple authorized service provider. For photo editing I'm using the Photos app. I've uninstalled the Devguru apps and hopefully that will help.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Reply

Answer 5

catherinemac Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 4, 2018 9:35 PM in response to Tesserax

The additional RAM was purchased from a third-party Apple authorized service provider. For photo editing I'm using the Photos app. I've uninstalled the Devguru apps and hopefully that will help.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Reply

Answer 6

catherinemac Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 4, 2018 9:39 PM in response to John Galt

Thank you for the info, John ... I'll review the recommended documents.

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How do I fix a problem with heavy RAM usage?

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